Mission Statement

(From the statutes (§ 18) of the CSLI)

We are an independent and private charitable organization in accordance to the ideals and the spirit of St. Lazarus. We are connected by the task to bring back joy into other peoples’ lives, to provide disaster relief, furthermore to care for and provide help to disabled people and the homeless. We work voluntarily and our members include volunteers from all age groups, professions and social backgrounds.

We feel deep respect for everyone. We accept people as they are. We are open to all people, irrespective of their nationality, ethnicity, religion, age, social status or origin.

The quality of the relationships between our members is our primary. We give occasions to develop self-esteem and life skills to all our members.

We face the challenge of everyday changing missions and tasks. We are united by our team spirit. Our members have the opportunity to evolve in both spiritual and personal fields.

We offer safety and transparency to our friends and supporters for their numerous gifts both immaterial and material. We are dedicated to a competent, efficient and responsible use of our available resources strictly according to our statues.

Inspired by our values, we accept every woman and every man in her / his uniqueness. We are guided in everything we do or think by the principles of love for all people, trust, mindfulness, joy, responsibility, courage and the willingness for reconciliation.

The main principles of the CSLI are tolerance, humility, mercy and charity.

Anyone can participate.

Let’s create new perspectives together.

Official Statement and Position of the

LAZARUS UNION

Regarding the Global Refugee Situation

The term “refugee“ is generally used in this statement for all kinds of immigrants regardless of war refugee, economic refugee or illegal immigrant (for whatsoever reasons as illegal is and REMAINS illegal). We will maintain this position according to our mission statement also in the bodies and committees of the United Nations ECOSOC (where the LAZARUS UNION as NGO with special consultative status has the right to file proposals and to deliver speeches).

Mission Statement

In the past days, weeks, and months we have been asked several times what is the position of the LAZARUS UNION regarding the current refugee situation which currently inundates Europe. The LAZARUS UNION mission statement is still valid and there are no plans to modify it. Yet we consider it appropriate to sharpen and render more precisely our mission statement and to enhance it with some “rough edges.“

(From the LAZARUS UNION-CSLI statutes (§ 19))

The CSLI is an independent private relief organisation after the ideals and in the spirit of St. Lazarus. Its members are united by the mission to delight other people, provide disaster relief, care for handicapped fellow persons, and support the homeless. We act pro bono, come from all groups of age, professions, and society.

Refugees are not mentioned explicitly in our mission statement. We without any reservation confess to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) from 1948 and the Convention relating to the Status of Refugees (aka Geneva Convention). But as the great number of refugees is an enormous strain not only for the refugees themselves but also for ALL affected countries and their population some things need an INTERNATIONAL solution.

We pay respect to all people. We accept them as they are, regardless of their nationality, ethnicity, religion, age, social standing, and background.

It is absolutely unacceptable that this respect is a one-way road. Just as we show respect to other people we have to demand the same respect also towards us, the public authorities, the executive, and all national facilities. It simply is absolutely unacceptable that people seeking protection with us at the same time disregard our values and refuse to accept them fully or even accept them at all because those values are different from theirs, having developed differently over centuries in a different culture area.

We place out emphasis on the quality of the relations. We provide room for the development of self-esteem and livelihood responsibility.

To guarantee this principle in the future also (considering the more and more “overturning“ public mood against the refugees which has to be urgently counter-steered to avoid not providing legitimate asylum chances to war refugees in accordance with the Human Rights Carta), we think the following steps have to be taken:

Spots must be installed urgently (at EU embassies, EU borders, perhaps even with the Red Cross or the Red Crescent etc.) where refugees can officially apply for asylum and where this application will be decided upon QUICKLY, perhaps even at the application location. This would be fair on the refugees but also fair on the population of those countries which finally will provide asylum to these people, besides it ruins the “business model“ of the people smugglers

It HAS to be made unmistakably clear to all asylum seekers what are valid preconditions for asylum to be granted and that a special country for final asylum can only be asked for under VERY special circumstances. Asylum seekers have ALWAYS to tell the truth. Untruths will be considered as abuse of the hospitality of the receiving country. If such untruths turn out during the procedureforgrantingtherightofasylum (or later) this must lead to an immediate stop of the procedure and eviction with prohibition to come back for several years, if such is in accordance with the rules of law, as any cheating prevents a positive asylum procedure. (Here special attention and sternness must be paid to forged documents like forged passports etc.) This has also to apply to ILLEGAL immigration if a LEGAL application procedure would have been possible!

Persons not qualifying for refugee status have to be turned back immediately, if necessary with financial aid from the EU. Refugees arriving without documents (those are often thrown away to avoid identification) must wait in a transit area until their identity can be verified. If this is not possible within some reasonable period of time and they do not cooperate they must also be sent back to guarantee the security of the receiving countries. Someone who has something to hide cannot ask for right to hospitality! Humanitarian rights of abode must be considered nevertheless.

The laws and the culture respectively the lifestyle of the host country must be accepted and followed by ALL asylum seekers during their stay without restrictions, independently of which laws and religions they had to follow in their former home countries. If they break any laws in their host country this consequently has to lead to an immediate stop of the procedure and eviction with prohibition to come back. These regulations HAVE to be made clear to all asylum seekers as soon as possible (even back in their home countries).

Local assistance in the home countries of the asylum seekers and in existing camps need to be dramatically improved by the “rich“ countries. Even if this does cost money. Nobody takes refuge voluntarily and leaves his homeland if the situation has not become unbearable (by all means even subjectively from the refugees‘ point of view) and one‘s life is in danger.

We face the challenge of ever-changing tasks. We are bound by team spirit. There are continually manifold chances for spiritual and personal development.

If these five items mentioned above will be implemented CONSEQUENTLY we believe that the community of states can handle this great challenge of our time (single countries are DEFINITELY hopelessly overextended and risk their inner stability and the cooperativeness of their population).

Asylum for all who qualify without any “ifs and buts.“ A clear NO with all rigidity to asylum misuse. (whereupon asylum misuse is difficult to define – in principle every person has the right to apply and take legal action in succession. If the application is turned back, procedure has to be taken in accordance with the principle of a lawful state, so technically there is no asylum misuse. If someone fades into the crowd or hides they technically have not been granted asylum (which is misused) but stay in the country illegally which again technically is no asylum misuse.)

EVERYBODY, even governments and their representatives as well as ALL asylum seekers have to obey valid laws in effect. There can be NO exception!

Our friends and supporters we give transparency and security in return for their support. The resources donated we use appropriately, competently, economically, and responsibly.

The LAZARUS UNION collects neither member fees nor entrance fees and so has only very limited means. Our largest “value“ is our attitude every LAZARUS UNION member lives in THEIR personal field. We primarily are a COMMUNITY IN ATTITUDE represented all over the world and so can contribute much to convince also other humans of this attitude. Nobody is free of bias and doubt. We must fight those REALISTICALLY (also in ourselves) and only so can live up to our mission statement.

Oriented at our moral values we accept every person in their own uniqueness. Our doing and thinking is guided by our love of people, trust, carefulness, joy, self-responsibility, courage, and a willingness to conciliation.

If we succeed in planting those moral values also into the hearts of the refugees we can contribute a lot for all. We are FULLY aware that this will be very difficult (for us as well as for the refugees). Yet we will try! He who has nothing to hide does use the door and not the window. To welcome anybody it is necessary to know who he is, where he comes from and how to address him! Only then any sustainable assistance is possible.

The main principles of the CSLI are tolerance, humbleness, mercy, and brotherly love.

Let us beware of ANY way of extremism. This is dangerous and NEVER can lead to success! Yet the refugees are also called upon not to misuse our trust and to prove themselves worthy of our hospitality.

Everybody can do something.

Let us TOGETHER provide new perspectives.

For the LAZARUS UNION

Senator h.c. Wolfgang Steinhardt
President and Union Commander
Grand Master of the Knighthood of Honour

Vienna, October 2015

Culture of Welcome

Finally a word on our position regarding the “culture of welcome“:

It is an obligation of civilised states to respect and to live human rights. Of course this does include acceptance of asylum seekers! If not permanently then at least for some time.

Yet we refuse to share the “joy decreed from above“ that “finally the strongly desired refugees“ also are with us and we strongly protest against being considered xenophobic or even worse.

Three reasons we are not pleased at all:

We are not pleased that there is so much war in this world and that man is not able to live together with his neighbour in peace and respect, respecting, understanding, and accepting each other.

We are not pleased that people have to turn refugee at all as we very well can understand how desperate these people must be, leaving behind their homes and all their possessions, as little as those may be.

We are but also not pleased that these refugees of all things now want to come to our country as we (Europe and the Western world) are held responsible by those people for their personal situation (rightfully or not is irrelevant) and as cultural and religious differences are often enormous, something that makes REAL integration very difficult if not impossible, also making those people not really happy in their asylum.

But: Even if we are not pleased we must do what we can within the scope of our possibilities to help. This is our duty as humans!